124 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GABDENEE. 



[ August G, 1874. 



the Bev. J. W. Mills statea that he has found this summer a | 

 number of Thecla W. album, attracted by the flowers of the 

 Lime tree in his garden. 



About gardens, even in the vicinity of London, the delicate 

 Uttle creature with a long Latin name and a short English 

 one, best known by the latter — viz., the White Plume (Ptero- 

 phorus pentadactjlus), flits about by day and night, looking 

 much like a snowflake in the dusk of evening. The wings in 



this, as in the rest of the Plumes, are cut into divisions, the 

 fore wings forming two of these on each side, and the hind 

 wings three, so that there are ten divisions instead of the 

 customary four wings of the moth families. By Mr. Wood 

 this feathery moth is ranked among the useful insects, because 

 the larva feeds on the Nettle. Were that the general fact, it is 

 not sufficiently numerous to make much inroad upon this 

 prolific weed ; and though I do not doubt the correetnesg of 



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Fig. 39.— CATERPII.I.iKSjAND BDITEEFLIE3 OF THEOLi W. ALBUM. 



the Btatement that the larvfe have been found on the Nettle, 

 I have myself taken thorn in the act of devouring the common 

 Bindweed of the hedges (Convolvulus Sepium), and also occa- 

 sionally on the garden Convolvulus ; though, on the other 

 hand, if the insect is not a friend, I wiU not call it an enemy 

 of the horticulturist. The caterpillar, of course diminutive in 

 size, is prettily marked with' green, white, and yellow, and 

 when fall-fed it spins upon a leaf a silken coating, and attaches 

 itself thereto to become a chrysalis, in the mode of some of 

 the butterflies. To view the scales or plumes of this moth to 

 advantage we must place it under a moderately strong micro- 

 scope, when the beautiful feathering of these and their satiny 

 lustre are brought out. It has an odd fashion of resting with 

 extended wings, not folding them, as do most moths in repose. 

 I have not been abbi to verify the assertion of some authors. 



that these moths are called "ghosts" or "spectres" by 

 country folk. What is called the common Plume (P. pterodac- 

 tylus), also shows itself in gardens, with what special intent 

 is not so easy to say, as the food-plant of the larva is the 

 common Thistle, and one can hardly snppnse that this little 

 moth is a flower-lover. The wines of this Plume are dull 

 brown, with some grey and red markings. But the handsomest 

 of all the Plumes is the rare Eose Plume (P. rhododactylus) ; 

 not so named because it feeds upon the Rose, but because the 

 wings are sufl'ased with rose colour, varind in the upper wings 

 with white, yellow, and green. The Twenty, or Manv-cleft 

 Plume, must be mentioned lastly, as a visitant to outhouses 

 and tool-sheds in gardens, though seldom seen on the wing. 

 Here we have twenty, or, properly speaking, twenty-four 

 plumes, which radiate almost In a semicircle. The species is 



